Just got Season 2 from LoveFilm, so that's another evening of the week lost to box sets. Have to say, after years of really not watching much TV, The Wire, Sopranos, Curb and Mad Men have made me realise it's not all bad.

Got the entire boxset of The Wire for Christmas, but only just started to watch it 3 days ago. By rights, I should be watching S1 ep4 tonight, but as my wife is away tonight I promised I would wait til tomorrow. I've got through tonight by watching the commentaries of episodes 1 and 2 by David Simon and Clark Johnson (the former being far more informative as it goes). Definitely hooked from the start!

I've become quite fascinated by Baltimore as a locale (Simon talks about the city a lot in his commentary). Prior to watching, I knew Baltimore to be a tough city lacking the glamour associated with other major US cities, but a quick potted history via Wikipedia revealed some very interesting pegs on which to hang some of the details surrounding setting, dialogue and indeed dialect. Hats off to the production team for creating a series filmed wherever possible in the real locations of the story!

We were given the entire boxset at Xmas too, from our kids, and since they had never seen it themselves, we set out this summer hols to watch through the whole lot. So far we're half-way through Season 3 (and everyone's loving it) and we have three weeks left to complete before Older Daughter goes away to uni.

What's lovely second time around is seeing how cleverly and gradually you tune into the characters and the complications of their lives; and just how grim West Baltimore is as a locale.

Col, it took you a second viewing to realise how grim West Baltimore is?!
Seriously though, I am continually shocked by the abject poverty seen in many areas of the US. The courtyards, the low-rises and high-rises, as representations of drug-addled hell, are thoroughly depressing. I have worked in a primary school in the west end of Newcastle for the last 6 years, but even as one of the UK's most deprived cities, none of it looks like West Baltimore. It would not be fair to judge the city on the basis of a drama depicting the worst example of drug dealing and its associated criminality, but the poverty on display in documentary film-making in the US would suggest it's a pretty accurate portrayal.

Anyway, just finished watching episode 11 (The Hunt) and I wanted to post because one scene in particular really made me well up. It shouldn't be a spoiler to refer to the scene when Bubbs reveals the $20 bill in his pocket. I am in total admiration of the ensemble acting, the direction and the storytelling that gets its audience to a point (within 11 episodes, remember) where we care enough about the actions of a character who is only playing a small part in a much, much bigger story.

No But you forget just how grim. I've visited Camden, south Philly, before now a couple of times and that's pretty much like West Baltimore in some ways: low-rises and corners, huge murder rate/annum (though slightly less in the last couple of years, I believe), and huge attempts by the local church and community to provide an alternative.

I totally cried for the second time at the penultimate couple of episodes of Season 2 re F Sobotka.